Thursday, 12 March 2015

My First Australian Government Blog

Most of my posts have centred round Samoan and Pacific
issues as that is where I lived for the last nine years.I now live in Australia and I feel like
sharing my opinion on the Bali situation.

Photo Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

I am sure you all know, but just to sum it up two
Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran (pictured above), were found guilty of planning to smuggle heroin into Bali,
Indonesia.Their penalty for this crime
is execution by firing squad.

While I feel that
execution by firing squad is inhumane, I don’t think I am completely against
the death penalty.If one of my family
members were murdered in cold blood I would want the death penalty for their
killer.I would not want to know that my
loved one’s life has ended while their murderer is free to learn new skills,
breathe fresh air, still see their loved ones and live a life.Because regardless of whether they are locked
in a jail and not able to have the same freedoms as you and I they are still
living while my loved one is not.

The charges that
these two people were found guilty of are not misdemeanors that require just a
slap on the wrists.Drugs are an
enormous problem not only in Australia, but throughout the world.Drugs and their effects do not just have an
impact on the individual drug user, it impacts their families and the whole of
Australia.Alcohol and drug related
problems are some of the more common reasons people in Australia seek medical
attention.I love our Medicare system
and don’t think it should change, but I don’t think that Australian taxpayers
should have to bear the burden of drug related health issues.

While I feel for
these two individuals and their families I believe that Indonesia have every
right to uphold their rights and stop the often fatal drugs from entering into
their country.I feel it was wrong of
Australia to remind Indonesia that they gave them billions of dollars in aid
after the tsunami.This indicates that
the aid that Australia gives is tied and you are bound to do whatever Australia
wants if you are to continue to receive not only the aid but the patronage of
Australian tourists.You visit a country
because you want to experience a new culture and to see the beauty of the
land.If you decide to boycott for this
sole reason then really you are hurting yourself because Indonesia is such a
beautiful country with so much to offer. People around the world are not going to stop
going for this one reason.

People say you
need to dig deeper and know that if the ADF had done something earlier then
this would not have happened.This is so
true!Why are you now picking on a
country for carrying out their laws and caring for their country?Why are the Government of Australia not
asking their federal police why they did not stop this from happening when they
had all the information from the beginning?I know this is harsh but they did their crime and knew the consequences,
I don’t see this verdict is going to change.

As for getting
upset at the fact that Indonesian police monitored the transfer of prisoners
through photographs, are you serious!?They were not showing the prisoners being harmed or in a derogatory way.In fact the photos were tasteful in
comparison to the photos of members of the Indonesian Army photographed with an
innocent member of the West Papua community who they had just killed!Why is the Australian
Government not outraged by the treatment of these innocent human beings in West
Papua? Why is no one boycotting Indonesia for their murderous actions in West Papua?

Now is the time for
my conspiracy theory.I feel the
Government of Australia is feeling guilty because they know they could have
stopped the Bali Nine incident from happening, but instead chose to see what
would happen and if these nine led to even bigger drug lords with whom they
could convict.Now that Australia see
that the Indonesian government will be transparent and actually put
into play the skills in governance and law they received through technical
assistance from Australian Aid, the Australian Government now want Indonesia to
revert to their corrupt former selves and make exceptions to laws because they
are Australian?I feel that there are
more pressing issues that Australia should concentrate on rather than trying to
fix a mess out of guilt for not moving to action and preventing the whole mess
in the first place!

Ok I feel that I have sufficiently shared my thoughts, what do you think?